As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to these users is an information handling system. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may vary with respect to the type of information handled; the methods for handling the information; the methods for processing, storing or communicating the information; the amount of information processed, stored, or communicated; and the speed and efficiency with which the information is processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include or comprise a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems may be included as elements of a storage network. A storage network can be considered as a specialized network of storage devices coupled to one or more data servers. A storage enclosure is an element of a storage network. A storage enclosure is a self-contained physical enclosure that includes within the enclosure a number of storage elements or storage drives. Storage drives typically comprise disk-based storage drives. Serial Attached SCSI (SAS) is a storage network interface and communications protocol for storage transactions. SAS storage networks are characterized as having a serial, point-to-point architecture and improved data integrity, as compared with parallel SCSI storage networks.
SAS storage networks may include a topology within a storage enclosure that includes wide port links coupled to one or more expanders. If a failure in a wide port link occurs, it may be difficult to recognize the failure of the wide port link during the discovery process that occurs at the initialization of the storage enclosure. The failure of a wide port link, whether recognized or unrecognized, limits the bandwidth available on the wide link. In addition, when a wide port link is expected to be operable and is not operable, a mismatch may exist in the mapping of drives in the storage enclosure to hosts or server slots.